Alliance Aircraft is designing and plans to produce a family of transport airplanes with capacity ranging from 70 to 110 passengers powered by turbofan engines in response to the increased demand from the regional airline industry.
competitive features of the sl 200/300
- Glass cockpit featuring the Honeywell Primus Epic avionics suite and "soft keys".
- Same cockpit, avionics, systems, and flight control design across the SL 200/300/400 family.
- Same avionics, systems, and flight control architecture with the smaller SL family (35 to 50 seats). Customers who purchase the SL 200/300 family have the additional synergistic operational benefit in terms of reduced crew training time and costs, and safety via commonality and familiarity.
- The Embraer ERJ-135/-140/-145 (37/44/50 seats) and the Fairchild-Domier 328JET (32/34 seats) are very different from the bigger ERJ-170/-190 and 728JET/928JET designs, while BAe systems do not even have a small regional aircraft strategy. Although the Bombardier CRJ-700 and the CRJ-900 share some commonality with the smaller 50-seat CRJ-200, the company does not have a 35- or a 44-seat design.
- Automatic checklists reducing crew workload.
- No overhead switches and circuit breakers, reducing weight and pilot distraction.
- Enhanced utilities system management via the avionics increasing crew efficiency.
- Trailing-link landing gear allowing aircraft gross weight changes by a simple damper replacement and giving a "softer" landing.
comfort
The interior of the Alliance Aircraft family of aircrafts is being designed with anatomic seats with 20-inch width and a comfortable 20-inch aisle with large overhead bins with volume sufficient to satisfy the needs of passengers during the winter season to assure passenger comfort. Under-the-floor baggage compartments will provide more than 10 cubic feet of checked baggage for each passenger.
performance
All of the Alliance Aircraft airplanes are designed to cruise at 41,000 feet at Mach .80, having a maximum operational Mach of .84. The fuselage pressurization will maintain the cabin altitude equivalent to 8,000 feet and will be acoustically treated to achieve optimal passenger comfort.
SL 200/300
With the help of advanced design tools, the aerodynamics, together with engine specifications, will provide the Company family of aircrafts the performance Alliance Aircraft expects to place them above the competition. With the use of smart computers, liquid crystal display and fly-by-wire technologies, Alliance Aircraft expects the design of its airplanes to help improve crew effectiveness and high dispatch reliability, which should result in short turnaround time and reduced operational costs.
Alliance Aircraft airplanes are designed in a family. The SL 200/300 (seating more than 70) will have a 5 abreast configuration. All interiors within the family feature 20-inch seats with a minimum of 32-inch pitch. Flexibility of arrangement will be provided by adequate location of two large doors on each side, which also will help enhance boarding and service time.
Alliance Aircraft airplanes are designed in a family. The SL 200/300 (seating more than 70) will have a 5 abreast configuration. All interiors within the family feature 20-inch seats with a minimum of 32-inch pitch. Flexibility of arrangement will be provided by adequate location of two large doors on each side, which also will help enhance boarding and service time.
Configuration layout
Besides engine location consideration, the configuration of the SL 200/300 is carefully optimized to ensure that all performance goals are met while offering superior passenger comfort and luggage space. The following features enable the SL 200/300 to cruise efficiently at 37,000ft (11,278m) at a high cruise speed of Mach 0.80 or 528 mph:
- High wing sweep
- High wing aspect ratio
- Full-span slats and double-slotted Fowler flaps
- Fly-by-wire technology in all 3 axes:
- Reducing the size of horizontal & vertical tail surfaces due to smaller static margins
- Eliminating trim and gear tabs, aileron and elevator horn balance, thereby eliminating aerodynamic losses through control surface gaps
- Reducing the gaps of primary control surfaces (ailerons, rudder, spoilers and elevators) and providing aerodynamic seals since stick force and friction of the control circuit are not limiting factors
Better engines
The SL 200/300/400 will use a common and proven Rolls Royce BRR-710 engine, a new Rolls Royce geared turbofan, a derivative of which powers the Boeing 717, with significant fuel economy, weight, noise and emission advantages over its competitors or a Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan.
Advanced Aerodynamic Design Tools
Computational Fluid Dynamics ("CFD") tools are being used to design the SL family of aircrafts. Successful application of these tools in aerodynamic design, especially wing design, have been documented in the literature by Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, Bombardier, Raytheon, Cessna, and many other aerospace companies. Many of these sophisticated design programs have been developed in-house, while others are acquired from vendors with years of careful correlation with experimental and flight test data. Completed in-house codes include:
A major advantage of using this design procedure and these supporting software tools is a rapid turnaround during the wing design effort. In the past, for example, it required several weeks, even months, to build a multiblock structured computational grid for the entire aircraft (with pylons, nacelles and empennage surfaces). The 3D multiblock program at Alliance Aircraft features an automatic topology generator that decreases the time in the first go-around from weeks to 2-3 days, and subsequent modifications to within two hours. With these capable tools, Alliance Aircraft has designed and analyzed over 400 airfoils and 140 wings for the SL.
Besides qualitative results, these tools also give accurate and reliable quantitative data. The Alliance Aircraft aerodynamic team has applied these tools in other wing design efforts at other companies, and was able to predict cruise drag to within one percent (1%) of the wind tunnel and flight test data.
- 2D airfoil design program
- 2D high-speed analysis program (Euler with viscous coupling)
- 2D high-lift system design program
- 2D slat/flap analysis program
- 3D wing design program
- 3D shock capture and analysis program
- 3D high-speed multiblock Euler/Euler with viscous coupling/Navier-Stokes code
- 3D low-speed panel method
- 2D/3D Navier-Stokes program
A major advantage of using this design procedure and these supporting software tools is a rapid turnaround during the wing design effort. In the past, for example, it required several weeks, even months, to build a multiblock structured computational grid for the entire aircraft (with pylons, nacelles and empennage surfaces). The 3D multiblock program at Alliance Aircraft features an automatic topology generator that decreases the time in the first go-around from weeks to 2-3 days, and subsequent modifications to within two hours. With these capable tools, Alliance Aircraft has designed and analyzed over 400 airfoils and 140 wings for the SL.
Besides qualitative results, these tools also give accurate and reliable quantitative data. The Alliance Aircraft aerodynamic team has applied these tools in other wing design efforts at other companies, and was able to predict cruise drag to within one percent (1%) of the wind tunnel and flight test data.
business jet applications
The SL 200/300 aircraft designs are well suited to business jet applications due to their large comfortable cabins, long-range capabilities and economy of operation. The designs for these aircrafts will be executed with business jet applications as a requirement, which will be certified with a Supplemental Type Certification ("STC").
The SL 300 Business Jet will have a cabin four feet shorter and three inches narrower than that of a Boeing 737-700, BBJ1, a corporate jet airliner. The latter has a weight of 171,000 pounds, a range of 6,023 nautical miles, and a $70.3M price tag. The SL 300 will have virtually the same cabin comfort and range (approximately 6,000 nautical miles), but with a lower weight (98,000 pounds) and an expected price of $36.0M.
Both of the Alliance Aircraft business jet designs offer comfortable cabins with long range cruise capabilities at a competitive price. Alliance Aircraft expects the value of these aircrafts, as a business tool, to be sustained at a high level because of these attributes.
The SL 300 Business Jet will have a cabin four feet shorter and three inches narrower than that of a Boeing 737-700, BBJ1, a corporate jet airliner. The latter has a weight of 171,000 pounds, a range of 6,023 nautical miles, and a $70.3M price tag. The SL 300 will have virtually the same cabin comfort and range (approximately 6,000 nautical miles), but with a lower weight (98,000 pounds) and an expected price of $36.0M.
Both of the Alliance Aircraft business jet designs offer comfortable cabins with long range cruise capabilities at a competitive price. Alliance Aircraft expects the value of these aircrafts, as a business tool, to be sustained at a high level because of these attributes.
